I AM a fan of uncomplicated, make-a-plan biotech-type ideas. They suit my “simple solutions are super” approach to life. I like the notion of solving problems and creating opportunities by putting things that don’t need batteries, Eskom or petrol to work. We’ve done it for centuries by, for example, burning wood for fire, and using animals for transport, microscopic unicellular fungus (that is, yeast) to make bread and beer, and bacteria to turn milk into yoghurt.
More recent biotech finds include the use of dung beetles to reduce methane emissions, worms to turn waste into compost, and larvae to feed on excrement so it can be harvested and processed for animal or fish food, or biodiesel. There’s also the use of Pseudomonas bacterium to break down crude oil when treating oil spills and zebrafish to decode the genetic mutation responsible for a hereditary muscle disease found in people native to North Carolina in the US.
In North Carolina, entrepreneur Matt Richmond took biotechnology back to grassroots level in 2010, when he established a small business called Rent-A-Goat to — yes, you guessed it — rent out goats to clear properties of unwanted grass, bush and weeds.
By 2011, the company, which Richmond promotes as an eco-friendly alternative to machinery or chemicals, had become so successful, he decided he’d help ensure others didn’t “miss the goat” and added to it “a worldwide listing for all goat-based brush-clearing service providers”.
Rent-A-Goat was recently included in Entrepreneur magazine’s 100 Brilliant Companies. It has more than 82,000 Twitter followers and almost 16,000 Facebook “likes”.
Goats are not only useful for maintaining lawns and landscaped areas. They’re also considered the ideal weed-control and bush-clearing solution for sites undergoing new construction, and for removing invasive species and restoring indigenous plant and animal habitats. They’re also widely used to keep firebreaks clear of vegetation and to reduce undergrowth in forests.
The animals are excellent climbers, and can tackle steep and rocky terrain that’s difficult to clear with machinery. Land cleared by goats can safely be used for farming and gardening, and even children’s playgrounds. They eat about 3.5kg of vegetation a day and produce 13% of the methane emitted by cattle, and goat droppings are considered an easy-to-use and effective garden fertiliser.
Herds signed up by Rent-A-Goat work from nine-to-five with no downtime and are supervised by authorised goat managers. The animals are transported to and from work in “roomy trailers”. The company guarantees they’re up-to-date in terms of vaccinations and deworming. Prices are “competitive with commercial landscaping services”.
And, if you think hi-tech organisations don’t appreciate capric solutions, you’re wrong. Goat-using clients include Amazon in Japan and Google in California, which employ herds to mow lawns around their premises each week.
San Francisco International Airport, scene of the Asiana Airlines crash, recently hired about 250 goats to take on landscaping work. They were not, however, at the airport at the time, so the landscaping livestock didn’t become scapegoats.
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